Suberin of Potato (Solanum tuberosum Var. Nikola): Comparison of the Effect of Cutinase CcCut1 with Chemical Depolymerization

Chemical and enzymatic depolymerizations of suberin isolated from potato peel (Solanum tuberosum var. Nikola) were performed under various conditions. Enzymatic hydrolysis with cutinase CcCut1 and chemical methanolysis with NaOMe of suberin yielded monomeric fragments, which were identified as TMS derivatives with GC-MS and GC-FID. The solid, hydrolysis-resistant residues were analyzed with solid state (13)C CPMAS NMR, FT-IR, and microscopic methods. Methanolysis released more CHCl(13)-soluble, material than the cutinase treatment when determined gravimetrically. Interestingly, cutinase-catalyzed hydrolysis produced higher proportions of aliphatic monomers than hydrolysis with the NaOMe procedure when analyzed by GC in the form of TMS derivatives. Monomers released by the two methods were mainly alpha,omega-dioic acids and omega-hydroxy acids, but the ratios of the detected monomers were different, at 40.0 and 32.7% for methanolysis and 64.6 and 8.2% for cutinase, respectively. Thus, cutinase CcCut1 showed higher activity toward ester bonds of alpha,omega-dioic acids than toward the bonds of omega-hydroxy acids. The most abundant monomeric compounds were octadec-9-ene-1,18-dioic acid and 18-hydroxyoctadec-9-enoic acid, which accounted for ca. 37 and 28% of all monomers, respectively. The results of the analyses of the chemical and enzymatic hydrolysis products were supported by the spectroscopic analyses with FT-IR and CPMAS (13)C NMR together with the analysis of the microstructures of the hydrolysis residues by light and confocal microscopy

Germline Mutation of RPS20, Encoding a Ribosomal Protein, Causes Predisposition to Hereditary Nonpolyposis Colorectal Carcinoma Without DNA Mismatch Repair Deficiency

Peer reviewe

Disease expression in juvenile polyposis syndrome : a retrospective survey on a cohort of 221 European patients and comparison with a literature-derived cohort of 473 SMAD4/BMPR1A pathogenic variant carriers

Purpose Juvenile polyposis syndrome (JPS) is a rare, autosomal-dominantly inherited cancer predisposition caused in approximately 50% of cases by pathogenic germline variants in SMAD4 and BMPR1A. We aimed to gather detailed clinical and molecular genetic information on JPS disease expression to provide a basis for management guidelines and establish open access variant databases. Methods We performed a retrospective, questionnaire-based European multicenter survey on and established a cohort of SMAD4/BMPR1A pathogenic variant carriers from the medical literature. Results We analyzed questionnaire-based data on 221 JPS patients (126 kindreds) from ten European centers and retrieved literature-based information on 473 patients. Compared with BMPR1A carriers, SMAD4 carriers displayed anemia twice as often (58% vs. 26%), and exclusively showed overlap symptoms with hemorrhagic telangiectasia (32%) and an increased prevalence (39% vs. 13%) of gastric juvenile polyps. Cancer, reported in 15% of JPS patients (median age 41 years), mainly occurred in the colorectum (overall: 62%, SMAD4: 58%, BMPR1A: 88%) and the stomach (overall: 21%; SMAD4: 27%, BMPR1A: 0%). Conclusion This comprehensive retrospective study on genotype-phenotype correlations in 694 JPS patients corroborates previous observations on JPS in general and SMAD4 carriers in particular, facilitates recommendations for clinical management, and provides the basis for open access variant SMAD4 and BMPR1A databases.Peer reviewe

Is Symptomatic Long QT Syndrome Associated with Depression in Women and Men?

We examined whether long QT syndrome (LQTS) mutation carrier status or symptomatic LQTS are associated with depression, and whether there are sex differences in these potential relationships. The sample comprised 782 participants (252 men). Of the 369 genetically defined LQTS mutation carriers, 169 were symptomatic and 200 were asymptomatic. The control group consisted of 413 unaffected relatives. Depression was assessed using the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II). No association was found for LQTS mutation carrier status with depression. The multinomial logistic regression showed that LQTS mutation carrier men with arrhythmic events scored higher on depression compared with the control group, even when adjusting for age, beta-blockers, antidepressants, and social support (OR = 1.09, 95 % CI [1.02, 1.15], p = .007). The binary logistic regression comparing symptomatic and asymptomatic LQTS mutation carriers showed that symptomatic LQTS was associated with depression in men (OR = 1.10, 95 % CI [1.03, 1.19], p = .009). The results were unchanged when additionally adjusted for education. These findings suggest that symptomatic LQTS is associated with depression in men but not in women. Overall, however, depression is more frequent in women than men. Thus, regular screening for depression in LQTS mutation carriers and their unaffected family members can be important.Peer reviewe

Survival in women with MMR mutations and ovarian cancer: a multicentre study in Lynch syndrome kindreds

Background: Women with a germline mutation in one of the MMR genes MLH1, MSH2 or MSH6 reportedly have 4–12% lifetime risk of ovarian cancer, but there is limited knowledge on survival. Prophylactic bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy (PBSO) has been suggested for preventing this condition. Aim: The purpose of this retrospective multicentre study was to describe survival in carriers of pathogenic mutations in one of the MMR genes, and who had contracted ovarian cancer. Methods: Women who had ovarian cancer, and who tested positive for or were obligate carriers of an MMR mutation, were included from 11 European centres for hereditary cancer. Most women had not attended for gynaecological screening. Crude and disease specific survival was calculated by the Kaplan–Meier algorithm. Results: Among the 144 women included, 81.5% had FIGO stage 1 or 2 at diagnosis. 10 year ovarian cancer specific survival independent of staging was 80.6%, compared to less than 40% that is reported both in population based series and in BRCA mutation carriers. Disease specific 30 year survival for ovarian cancer was 71.5%, and for all hereditary non-polyposis colon cancer (HNPCC)/Lynch syndrome related cancers including ovarian cancer it was 47.3%. Conclusions: In the series examined, infiltrating ovarian cancer in Lynch syndrome had a better prognosis than infiltrating ovarian cancer in BRCA1/2 mutation carriers or in the general population. Lifetime risk of ovarian cancer of about 10% and a risk of dying of ovarian cancer of 20% gave a lifetime risk of dying of ovarian cancer of about 2% in female MMR mutation carriers.<br/

Radar—CubeSat transionospheric HF propagation observations:Suomi 100 satellite and EISCAT HF facility

Abstract Radio waves provide a useful diagnostic tool to investigate the properties of the ionosphere because the ionosphere affects the transmission and properties of high frequency (HF) electromagnetic waves. We have conducted a transionospheric HF-propagation research campaign with a nanosatellite on a low-Earth polar orbit and the EISCAT HF transmitter facility in Tromsø, Norway, in December 2020. In the active measurement, the EISCAT HF facility transmitted sinusoidal 7.953 MHz signal which was received with the High frEquency rAdio spectRomEteR (HEARER) onboard 1 Unit (size: 10 × 10 × 10 cm) Suomi 100 space weather nanosatellite. Data analysis showed that the EISCAT HF signal was detected with the satellite’s radio spectrometer when the satellite was the closest to the heater along its orbit. Part of the observed variations seen in the signal was identified to be related to the heater’s antenna pattern and to the transmitted pulse shapes. Other observed variations can be related to the spatial and temporal variations of the ionosphere and its different responses to the used transmission frequencies and to the transmitted O- and X-wave modes. Some trends in the observed signal may also be associated to changes in the properties of ionospheric plasma resulting from the heater’s electromagnetic wave energy. This paper is, to authors’ best knowledge, the first observation of this kind of “self-absorption” measured from the transionospheric signal path from a powerful radio source on the ground to the satellite-borne receiver

Candidate driver genes in microsatellite-unstable colorectal cancer

Defects in the mismatch repair system lead to microsatellite instability (MSI), a feature observed in similar to 15% of all colorectal cancers (CRCs). Microsatellite mutations that drive tumourigenesis, typically inactivation of tumour suppressors, are selected for and are frequently detected in MSI cancers. Here, we evaluated somatic mutations in microsatellite repeats of 790 genes chosen based on reduced expression in MSI CRC and existence of a coding mononucleotide repeat of 6 similar to 10 bp in length. All the repeats were initially sequenced in 30 primary MSI CRC samples and whenever frameshift mutations were identified in &gt;20%, additional 70 samples were sequenced. To distinguish driver mutations from passengers, we similarly analyzed the occurrence of frameshift mutations in 121 intronic control repeats and utilized a statistical regression model to determine cut-off mutation frequencies for repeats of all types (A/T and C/G, 610 bp). Along with several know target genes, including TGFBR2, ACVR2, and MSH3, six novel candidate driver genes emerged that harbored significantly more mutations than identical control repeats. The mutation frequencies in 100 MSI CRC samples were 51% in G8 of GLYR1, 47% in T9 of ABCC5, 43% in G8 of WDTC1, 33% in A8 of ROCK1, 30% in T8 of OR51E2, and 28% in A8 of TCEB3. Immunohistochemical staining of GLYR1 revealed defective protein expression in tumors carrying biallelic mutations, supporting a loss of function hypothesis. This is a large scale, unbiased effort to identify genes that when mutated are likely to contribute to MSI CRC development.</p